It Had to Be You
by VooDoo Lily
Summary: Sam and Dean Winchester visit Allison DuBois to try to find answers about Sam's dreams. Trouble follows. Set during S2 of "Supernatural" and after S4 of "Medium." Spoilers are present.
1. Prologue

Title: It Had to Be You

Summary: Sam and Dean Winchester go see Allison DuBois to try to find answers about Sam's dreams. Trouble follows.

Notes: This takes place during Season 2 of "Supernatural," with Sam having dreams and visions related to the Yellow-Eyed Demon. This is set after Season 4 of "Medium," where Allison's gift has been exposed to the public, and she has lost her job at the District Attorney's office. Joe is working for his start-up at this time. A huge thank you to **Katrina**, my beta reader, for suggestions that helped me shape and improve this story. Any errors you find are my own.

* * *

- Prologue -

Two men were sitting in a car, driving along a back road at night. The driver had green eyes, short brown-blonde hair with spiked bangs and a grim look on his handsome face as he stared intently at the road ahead. The passenger had longer, wavy brown hair. His blue-grey eyes were full of worry, and his brows were knitted together in a concerned frown.

"So tell me more about this lead you found," the driver instructed his companion.

"Phoenix, Arizona. There were a bunch of news stories last year about a woman named Allison DuBois. She works for the District Attorney—or did."

The driver raised his eyebrows. "So, what? She's some high-power, corporate lawyer?"

The other man consulted some printed papers he held in his hands. "No, I don't think so, Dean. Says here she dropped out of law school to become a stay-at-home mom for awhile, then started working for the D.A. on a part-time basis. At first, people thought she was just a consultant, but then a reporter broke the story that Allison was a psychic and was using her abilities to help the D.A. solve crimes. The fallout was huge. The D.A. got replaced, Allison lost her job, the cases she worked on all had to be re-examined…"

"Look, that sucks, okay? But what I want to know is, how does she do it, Sam?" the man called Dean asked.

"It says she has dreams," Sam said quietly.

"Dreams?" Dean gave the man beside him a sharp look. "Like the ones you get?"

"I don't know," Sam replied with a sigh, looking out his window as they sped along the road. "I guess we'll find out soon enough."

They drove by a road sign, the illumination from their car's headlights revealing it to say, "Phoenix 50 miles."

Allison awoke from her dream with a gasp.


	2. Chapter 1

- Chapter 1 -

"So, you're saying that two guys, who you've never met before, are coming here to see you?" Allison's husband, Joe, asked the next morning as he poured himself some cereal at the kitchen counter.

"That's what it looked like, yeah," Allison said in a low voice. She glanced over at her three daughters, who were eating breakfast at the kitchen table. "Girls, hurry up," she said more loudly. "Go get ready for school, or you're going to be late."

"Okay, Mom," her oldest daughter, fourteen-year-old Ariel, answered. She shepherded her two younger sisters, ten-year-old Bridgette and four-year-old Marie, out of the kitchen.

Once they were gone, Allison resumed talking about her dream with Joe. "I think I should stay home today," she announced.

"What? But what about you taking the girls to school? I have that early morning meeting today, remember?"

"I've already asked Hannah's mother if she could take them. I want to be here when those guys come."

"Allison, just because you saw them driving to Phoenix and talking about _possibly _visiting you in a dream doesn't mean they'll show up here today. What if they come next week or next month or next year? Are you going to stay home for a whole year?"

"Of course not. But, in my dream, I felt like they were coming now, like they could be here any second."

Joe froze, as if listening for something.

"What are you doing?" she asked with some annoyance.

"Just waiting to hear the doorbell announcing the arrival of…What did you say their names were again?"

"Sam and Dean. And anyway, it's not like I can't stay home for one day. In case you haven't noticed, my special skills aren't exactly in high demand right now."

"I know that, Al. But you of all people should know that your dreams aren't always accurate. All I'm saying is, if you don't end up having any visitors today named Sam and Dean, then I reserve the right to say 'I told you so.'"

"Fine," Allison agreed. She gave him a quick kiss on the lips. "I'll see you later. Have a good day at work."

Joe began leaving the kitchen to go to work at his new startup company, then stopped and turned back to face his wife. "You know, I almost hope they don't show up. What kind of a husband would I be if I left my wife alone with two strange men?"

She threw a dry piece of cereal at him. "Very funny," she said dryly, but unable to stop herself from grinning.

-*-*-*-

"Girls, Joe, pizza's here!" Allison called that night, setting the cardboard delivery box down on the kitchen table.

She couldn't help feeling somewhat dismayed. She had waited all day for Sam and Dean's arrival, but she hadn't seen one unfamiliar car on the street or received any visitors.

She knew there was still a chance that they could show up in the future, but she had been so sure…

Her train of thought was interrupted by her family coming to join her at the kitchen table.

As Ariel and Bridgette set the table, and Allison got Marie settled into her chair, Joe opened the pizza box and took a deep whiff of the food.

"Ah, I don't know what it is, but something about being right makes everything better. I think this is the best pizza I've ever smelled."

"Okay, rub it in," Allison conceded.

"Mom, what's Dad talking about?" Ariel asked.

"I was expecting some visitors over today, but they didn't show up. Your Daddy is just enjoying that he was right about that, and I wasn't." She glanced around at her family, watching as they began to eat, but she only picked at her own food.

Joe noticed and put down his own slice as a look of concern crossed his features. "What's wrong? Are you getting sick?" He wiped his fingers on a napkin, then felt her forehead for a fever.

"I just don't feel that hungry." Allison shrugged her shoulders.

Joe shook his head. "If this is some ploy to make me feel guilty, then I'm not buying it. You'll just have to live with the fact that I get to say—"

He was cut off by the ringing of the doorbell.

"Hold that thought," Allison urged him as she got up to answer the door.

The two young men from her dream were there, in the flesh, on her doorstep. Seeing them standing, Allison realized they were both much taller than she had thought. Dean was about six feet tall, while Sam was even taller.

"Hi. Are you Allison DuBois?" Sam asked.

She nodded. "Yes, I'm Allison. And you're Sam and Dean. I'm so glad you finally made it."

Her visitors exchanged looks at this revelation that she knew who they were and that they were coming to see her, before Dean cleared his throat and spoke next.

"You knew we were coming?"

"Yes. And I think you know how I'd know about your visit?"

Sam nodded. "That's why we're here, actually. My brother and I, we wanted to ask you about your dreams."

Allison frowned in confusion. "You're brothers?"

Dean raised his eyebrows. "What, you mean you didn't see that in your dream or your vision or whatever?"

"My _dreams _don't work that way," she said a little testily. "I can't see everything."

"Look, we don't mean to be rude," Sam said quickly, "but if you have some time, we'd love to ask you how your dreams work, what you see…"

She nodded slowly, remembering Dean's comment from her dream, about whether her dreams were like the ones Sam had.

"All right," she agreed softly. She stepped aside, letting them in. "My family and I were just having dinner. You're welcome to join us."

"Oh, thank you, but—" Sam began, only to have Dean interrupt him.

"Is that pizza I smell?" He grinned widely at his brother. "I could go for some pizza. What do you say, Sammy?"

Sam looked like he wanted to argue, but gave in anyway. "Pizza sounds great," he said weakly, offering Allison an apologetic glance as his brother preceded him into the house.

Allison led the brothers into the kitchen, where her husband and daughters all stopped eating and looked at the strangers.

"Who are they, Mommy?" Bridgette asked, breaking the silence.

"I'm so glad you asked, sweetheart. Everyone, _this_," she said, casting a smug look at Joe, "is Sam and Dean. They were the visitors I was telling you about. I've invited them to stay for dinner."

"Hey," Dean greeted. He craned his neck to look at the pizza remaining in the box. "Is that pepperoni?"

Sam elbowed him sharply in the ribs, signaling him to shut up.

"Yes, it is," Allison answered him. "The bathroom's around the corner and down the hall. Why don't you go wash your hands, and I'll get two clean plates?"

"Uh, sure. Thanks, Mrs. DuBois." Sam said politely, then grabbed Dean by the shoulder and steered him towards the bathroom.

Once they were out of earshot, Joe got up from his seat and confronted his wife as she pulled out two more plates from the kitchen cupboard. "Are you crazy?" he asked in a low voice. "Inviting these two guys in here, telling them to eat dinner with us? You don't even know them, Allison! You've just met!"

"Joe, they've come here looking for answers. I think Sam," she glanced toward her daughters, then lowered her voice even further, "I think Sam is like me. He has dreams. Only he doesn't understand them. And now he's come here, he and his brother, to talk to me. And I want to help."

Joe opened his mouth, wanting to argue the matter further, but he was prevented by Dean and Sam's return to the kitchen.

"Have a seat. Help yourselves," Allison urged her guests, setting the new plates down on the table and removing her and Joe's plates.

"Yes, sit down, eat our food," Joe said under his breath.

"Don't mind if I do," Dean replied to Allison, settling himself into what had been Allison's chair. Sam followed suit, though more cautiously as he took Joe's place at the table.

Dean lifted out a slice of pizza from the box, and took a large bite. He chewed, closing his eyes in satisfaction. "Wow, this pizza is so good," he exclaimed with his mouth full. "I never knew Phoenix had such good pizza."

Ariel, who was on his right, stared at him with disgust on her face, while Bridgette and Marie giggled at his lack of table manners. The eldest DuBois daughter turned to Sam, who was on Dean's left, helping himself to a small slice of pizza. "My name's Ariel. That's Bridgette, and that's Marie," she said, pointing to her sisters in turn.

"Hi, Ariel. It's nice to meet you," Sam said kindly. "I'm Sam. This is my older brother, Dean."

"Do you and Dean fight?" Bridgette asked from her place next to Sam.

Sam smiled a little. "Sometimes, yeah."

Bridgette turned to her big sister. "Then when you and me and Marie are old, we're still going to be fighting."

Dean swallowed his latest bite of pizza. "Hey, who are you calling 'old'?" he protested.

Sam chuckled. "Look, not all siblings fight when they get older. Maybe you and your sisters will get along really well."

"I doubt it," Ariel cut in, prompting Bridgette to stick her tongue out at her. "You're so immature, Bridgette," the teenager said in response.

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Am not!"

While her two older sisters continued arguing, Marie banged her fork onto her plate. "I want pizza," she announced.

"I got you covered." Dean took a slice from the box and began tearing it apart into small, manageable bites for the four-year-old.

Allison and Joe watched all this from their vantage point behind the kitchen counter. The medium smiled, while Joe looked slightly mollified.

"Well, the girls seem to have accepted them," he whispered to his wife.

"See? They're nice young men," she whispered back.

Joe shrugged. "Hm," he said noncommittally. "Although Dean could work on his manners," he pointed out, making Allison have to stifle a laugh.

She then glanced at the kitchen clock, and saw that it was getting late. She went over to the table to break up the fight between her two oldest daughters.

"Ariel, Bridge, that's enough. C'mon, finish your dinner. You've still got homework to do." She spoke next to Sam and Dean. "When you're finished, we can talk outside on the back patio."

The brothers nodded in agreement. Talking outside under the cover of darkness suited them just fine.


	3. Chapter 2

- Chapter 2 -

After their dinner, Sam and Dean joined Allison on the back patio of her house, where they kept two deck chairs. She and Sam sat facing each other on the long feet of the deck chairs while Dean stood a few feet behind his brother's chair.

"Before we start, I just want to say that I'm not sure how much help I'm going to be for you. There are a lot of things I'm in the dark about myself," she warned them. "But, having said that, what do you want to know?"

"Well, I guess I'll start with when did you first get these dreams?" Sam said.

"Since childhood. They weren't always so…violent. At first, it was just faces or people talking to me, saying things like they loved their families or were happy. Now, it's different."

"What do you see? Is it the future?"

"Sometimes," Allison said with a nod. "Sometimes, it's the past. You know, of a murder that's already happened. Other times, it's something very strange, especially cryptic. It can take time to figure out what my dreams mean. Other times, when I'm awake, I might get a vision or just a sense, a feeling, off of something or someone."

Dean frowned at hearing Allison say she had waking visions as well, and he crossed his arms over his chest, but said nothing.

"What do you see in your dreams?" Allison asked Sam.

He looked taken aback by the question. "Wait, how did you--? I never told you I had dreams."

"I saw it last night," she admitted. "In the same dream that told me you two were coming here."

The surprise on Sam's face faded away, and he glanced down at his hands, twisting them nervously together for a moment before he spoke.

"I sometimes get… flashes... of things that are going to happen," he said, his words coming haltingly. "Usually, the things I see are… connected to someone."

"Who?"

Dean fielded the question. "That's not important."

Allison didn't believe him, but decided to let it drop for now. She returned her attention to Sam. "Go on," she urged him.

"Well, I sometimes get these really intense headaches when I'm awake. They come right before I see a vision. Do you get those?"

Allison shook her head. "Headaches? No, I don't." She leaned forward. "What else?"

Sam paused for a long moment. "Well, once," he began, "I saw something when I was awake, but it was different from the other visions. There was no headache. I just saw someone I had lost. Her name was Jessica. I saw her standing on the street, wearing a white nightgown, in broad daylight. And then she was gone. That was it."

While Sam had been speaking, Dean had crept closer, listening intently. This was the first he'd ever heard of Sam seeing anything other than visions of violence or death.

"It's okay," Allison said softly, giving Sam's left arm a reassuring squeeze. "I know it's hard."

"I just want to know why this is happening to me," Sam replied. He stared at Allison, his blue-grey eyes pleading with her for help.

But Allison shook her head sadly. "I wish I could tell you," she said honestly. "But that's one of the things I'm in the dark about."

Sam held her gaze a moment longer before nodding and bowing his head as he exhaled deeply.

"Well, thank you for your time, ma'am," Dean said, breaking the hushed atmosphere of their conversation. "But Sam and I ought to get going. It's getting late."

"Please, call me Allison. And you're welcome to stay the night here. We don't have much room, but there's a couch, and a spare bed, if one of you doesn't mind sleeping in a bedroom covered in pink and purple. I can have Ariel share her sisters' room."

"Well, that's very generous of you, but Sam and I already checked into a motel before coming here, so …"

"Maybe we could come back tomorrow?" Sam ventured.

Dean looked surprised at his brother's request, but Allison smiled warmly.

"Of course. Here's my card with my cell phone number on it," she said, giving him one of her business cards from when she still worked for Devalos. "Just give me a call."

"Thank you. Uh, here, let me give you my number," Sam said, hastily pulling out a pad of paper and a pencil and scribbling his first name and phone number down.

Allison took the paper from him and read it, then laughed quietly to herself. "We've been talking all this time, and I don't even know your last name."

Dean and Sam traded glances.

"It's Winchester," Dean informed her.

"Like the gun?"

He smirked, his green eyes lighting with amusement, although Allison didn't understand what was so funny about what she had said. "Exactly."

-*-*-*-

"So, what's the deal here, Sammy?" Dean asked. He and Sam were in their motel room, unpacking their things as they prepared to settle in for the night.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, wanting to go back and see Allison again? She already told you the gist of how her psychic thing works. She doesn't get headaches, she didn't start having dreams in her twenties. I don't think she's connected to Yellow Eyes, Sam. It's a dead end, so why are you still banging your head against the wall?"

His little brother didn't reply at first, seemingly at a loss for words. "I can't explain it, Dean. I just think we need to stay here a little while longer."

Dean's eyes narrowed. "Have you dreamed something, Sam? Something related to Allison?"

"No," came the truthful response. "I just have a feeling. Trust me on this one?" he asked, his eyes adding their own silent appeal to his words.

Dean evaluated him for a moment, then nodded. "Fine," he said gruffly. "We'll give it a few more days. But if there's nothing else, we move on. Deal?"

A relieved look appeared on Sam's face. "Deal. Thanks, Dean." So saying, he grabbed his toothbrush from his bag and then went into the bathroom.

While he waited for his turn to use the facilities, Dean threw himself onto his bed and activated the Magic Fingers, wondering if Sam's hunch would prove to be true.

-*-*-*-

That night, Allison and Joe also prepared to go to sleep in their own home.

"So, how'd your talk go with Sam and Dean?" the former aerospace engineer asked as his wife climbed into the bed beside him.

"I'm not sure. I told Sam what my experiences had been like, but it sounds like his dreams work differently from mine. By the way, I told them they could stop by tomorrow too."

"You did? What for?"

"Well, I thought if I could just be there for Sam, it might give him some amount of comfort, help him see that he's not alone, that he's not the only person who has these dreams. And anyway, I thought you'd like having some male company in the house."

"Well, that _would_ be a nice change," Joe agreed.

Allison giggled. "I thought so." She turned over onto her side while Joe reached out and turned off the bedside lamp. "You know, it's funny," she continued. "Sam said his dreams were connected to someone, but when I asked him about it, Dean jumped in and said it wasn't important. Why would they hide something like that?"

"Well, maybe it's personal," her husband speculated, sounding sleepy now. "It's not really our business to know, is it?"

"No," she agreed, closing her eyes. "I guess you're right."

-*-*-*-

Allison dreamed she was woken up in the middle of the night by the sound of a baby crying. In her dream, the baby was hers, and a boy. She was also upstairs in a two-story house.

She got out of bed and went down the hall to check on her son. The door to his nursery was ajar and she could see him through the crack, crying in his crib, but he was already being quieted by her husband.

Leaving them undisturbed, Allison heard a faint noise coming from downstairs and followed it to see her husband watching TV.

Allison's confusion at seeing her husband downstairs quickly turned into dread and then panic as she realized someone else was in her son's nursery.

Racing back upstairs, she opened the nursery door wide, ready to confront the man who was invading her home. She opened her mouth to scream, but the man locked eyes with her, and her scream died in her throat. The rest of his face was obscured by shadows, but she could see his yellow eyes plainly.

"Shh," the man whispered, laying a finger to his lips.

Her son broke the silence as he began crying anew, and the noise jolted her into screaming for her husband.

"John!"

The man with the yellow eyes lifted a finger, and Allison felt her back slam into the wall. She felt a stab of pain in her abdomen, looking down to see her nightgown getting rapidly stained with blood. The next thing she knew, she was sliding up the wall and onto the ceiling.

She tried to move, but she was trapped, pinned there by some invisible force. As she stared down into the room, she saw her husband run inside, but the yellow-eyed man was already gone. A fire had somehow started at one of the walls, and flames were licking up higher and at an alarming rate.

She saw her husband check on their baby, saw her blood drip down onto him, making him look up and see her pinned there. The horror and anguish on his face burned itself into her mind.

Then, her husband was at the door to the nursery, passing the baby to their first-born son, who had been woken by the commotion and the smell of smoke.

Allison was thankful that John had kept him out of the nursery and prevented him from seeing his mother like that.

Over the roar of the flames, she could just make out what John was saying as he yelled to his oldest son. "Dean, get your brother, and get out of here. Take Sammy, and go! Don't look back, now go!"

As Dean ran out of the house with Sam in his arms, John tried to go back into the nursery to save Allison, but a wall of fire stopped him in his tracks. Allison felt the flames burning her body, making her cry out, waking her from her dream.

She sat up in bed, panting. Her hands and eyes flew to her abdomen, and she breathed a sigh of relief when she felt no signs of injury and saw no blood.

She checked the clock and saw that it was half past three in the morning. With an inward groan, she got out of bed and shuffled into the kitchen to use Joe's laptop. There was no way she was going back to sleep tonight. She might as well spend the rest of the night doing some research on her new acquaintances, Sam and Dean Winchester.


	4. Chapter 3

- Chapter 3 -

Allison sat at her kitchen table in the early morning, stunned at what she had found, although it hadn't been much. All she had been able to dig up on her computer search was that John Winchester had served in the U.S. Marine Corps and that his wife, Mary, had perished in a fire in their Lawrence, Kansas home twenty-three years ago, as confirmed by some old newspaper articles she had found. When it came to John and Mary's sons, she had found nothing on Sam and only one thing concerning Dean that was very strange.

One article from a Missouri newspaper said that Dean Winchester had been shot and killed by police after being found in the home of one of his latest victims. It seemed that Dean had been the prime suspect in a series of homicides in the St. Louis area, where people had been tied up in their homes and then tortured to death. The newspaper had run a police sketch alongside the article, and Allison thought it was a pretty accurate representation of the young man she had seen last night.

She felt sick to her stomach. She had invited him into her home and let him eat dinner with her children. She didn't understand how he could be here, alive and well, when this article was saying he was dead. She only knew he wasn't a ghost because Joe had seen him too.

Suddenly, her cell phone rang, making her jump. She checked the display, relieved to find that it was Scanlon, and not Sam Winchester, calling her.

"Hi, Lee. Did you get the records I asked you for?" she asked the former Phoenix police detective.

Because of his partnership with Allison and former D.A. Manuel Devalos, Lee Scanlon had run afoul of the new District Attorney, and been demoted to doing traffic duty. Allison felt bad calling in a favor to him, but he was the only person she knew who could get the information she was looking for.

"Yeah, I called in a few favors and got them right here, Allison," he replied, and she could hear him rifling through some papers. "These boys have done some pretty strange things, if you ask me."

She felt a knot form in the pit of her stomach. "Like what?"

"Well, grave desecration and burning corpses stick out from the more standard credit card fraud charges and identity theft." Lee went on. "But looks like only one of them's alive and kicking now. According to the police records, this Dean guy died on March 7, 2006. Shot and killed in St. Louis. Wanted for multiple homicides."

She glanced at one of her news articles, the one about Mary's death in Lawrence. "Lee, where does it say they were born?"

"Uh, says here they were both born in Lawrence, Kansas." He paused, then asked a question of his own. "Allison, you wanna tell me why you're looking into these guys?"

She was silent, and Scanlon heaved a sigh over the phone. "That's what I thought," he said. "Well, I gotta get back on duty. Somewhere out there, cars need someone to direct them in traffic."

Allison hurried to say something before he hung up. "Wait. Thank you for doing this. I know I shouldn't be asking you…"

"Hey, don't mention it. Kind of brings back the old days, you know what I mean?"

"Yeah," she said softly.

"Bye, Allison."

"Goodbye," she replied, and then with a click, Lee was gone.

-*-*-*-

That afternoon, Sam called Allison. Her phone rang long enough for him to think he would have to leave a voice mail message, before he heard her pick up.

"Hello?" She sounded wary.

"Allison, hi, it's Sam. I was wondering if now is a good time for Dean and I to come over to see you…"

"You know what, uh, why don't we meet for coffee? There's a diner not far from where I used to work. I'll text you the address and directions."

"Okay, great," Sam agreed, although he couldn't help wondering why she didn't want to talk to them at her house the way she had last night. "I guess we'll see you there then. Thanks."

He ended the call, then told Dean, "Allison wants to meet us for coffee at a diner." He hesitated a moment before asking "Does that seem kind of weird to you?"

Dean shrugged his shoulders. "Weird how? Maybe she's just jonesing for some caffeine. Or some pie."

"Yeah, but last night, she invited us into her house and let us have dinner with her family. Now today, she wants to meet in a public place. You don't think--"

"That she had another dream about us?" Dean finished.

Sam's cell phone chimed, announcing an incoming text message from Allison.

"I say we go find out," his older brother continued.

As he pulled the text message up onto his cell phone's screen, Sam grabbed his jacket and followed Dean out the door of their motel room.

-*-*-*-

The Winchesters arrived at the diner Allison had directed them to and Dean pulled his 1967 Chevy Impala into a parking spot.

They went inside and saw Allison waiting for them at a corner table by a window. She nodded to them, and the brothers seated themselves across from her.

Without preamble, the medium leaned forward and asked in a heated whisper "Okay, you two, what's going on here? Who are you guys, really?"

Dean and Sam exchanged glances, both of them knowing they would have to tread lightly here.

"Just what is it you think you know about us?" Dean asked.

"I know that you're supposed to be dead," she shot back. "Killed by police in Missouri after being wanted for a series of murders. I also know that you two like to desecrate graves and burn bodies, and that you have records for identity theft and credit card fraud. So, I'm going to ask you one more time: who are you?"

Before they could answer, a waitress came over to their table to take their orders. "What can I get you folks today?" she asked in a pleasant manner.

"Coffee," Dean snapped irritably. "And the biggest piece of pie you have."

"Just some water, please," Sam quietly requested.

"I'll have coffee too," Allison ordered.

The waitress threw Dean a dirty look before leaving them alone. Once she was out of earshot, Sam began defending his brother and himself.

"It's not what you think. Despite what you may have dreamed, Dean isn't responsible for those murders. But if we told you the truth, you'd think we were crazy."

Their waitress returned, pouring them coffee and giving Sam his water and Dean his pie. For the latter, she set his plate down roughly, causing it to clatter on the table. Dean glared at her back as she walked away from them.

Allison took a deep breath, willing herself to calm down. "I did have a dream last night," she told them, "and it was about the two of you, but it took place a long time ago. Dean was probably only four or five, and Sam, you were a baby. Something terrible happened in your nursery."

Sam paled slightly, but Dean's anger at being verbally attacked had brought out his skepticism. "Whoa, hold on. How do you know you were dreaming about us, specifically?"

"Because I heard your father call you by your names."

"Our father?"

"Yes, John Winchester." Allison took a deep breath, preparing herself to deliver more details. "In my dream, I was your mother. And I dreamed that a man with yellow eyes was inside Sam's nursery, and when I tried to confront him, he hurt me and immobilized me while a fire started in the room. I screamed for John, and I saw him tell you, Dean, to take Sam and get out of the house."

This latest revelation had cracked Dean's composure, but he still had one card left to play. "If you dreamed that you were my mother," he said, "and that you were 'watching' all this happen, then were you looking up or laying on your side after you were hurt?"

"Neither," Allison responded with calm assurance. "I was looking down from the ceiling."

Dean closed his eyes for a long moment, recognizing the truth of her words. Sam, meanwhile, stared at the tabletop, not really seeing it.

Seeing how much her words had affected them, Allison's gaze softened, but she continued in her questioning. "After my dream, I did some research and asked a friend of mine in the police department to dig up your records. That's how I knew about the murders and the other charges. But clearly, Dean's still breathing, so what I don't get is, how? Does it have something to do with the man I saw in your nursery?"

"You wanted to know who we were," the younger Winchester finally said. "The truth is that we're hunters."

"Hunters?" Allison repeated, looking confused.

"We hunt evil creatures," Sam went on, looking up to meet her gaze. "Demons, shapeshifters, ghosts, you name it. We find them and kill them."

"It was a shapeshifter who killed those people in St. Louis, thank you very much," Dean defended himself.

Allison blinked, then a smile crept onto her face. "Oh, I get it. You're joking with me, aren't you?"

"Lady, you're probably the last person who should be saying that, but we don't joke about the family business," Dean retorted, his eyes flashing with anger. "What happened to our mom—that was real. And it's what made our dad become a hunter in the first place."

"He was the one who taught us everything we know," Sam added.

"And where is he now?"

"Dead." The word fell like a lead weight from Dean's lips.

"We've been trying to find the yellow-eyed demon that killed our mom," Sam explained. "That's who you saw in your dream. He started the fire in my nursery."

"You say he's a demon, but he looked human, except for his eyes."

"Demons possess humans." It was Dean's turn to enlighten her now. "They really just look like black clouds of smoke on their own. Usually, demons can make a human's eyes go black. This guy, though, he's different. More powerful."

Allison settled back in her chair, feeling astonished for the second time that day.

"There's more," Sam continued. "My dreams…we," he indicated his brother with a glance, "think that they're connected to the yellow-eyed demon somehow. It's like whenever he's getting ready to do something, I can see it."

"So, when you read about me having dreams," Allison said slowly, putting the pieces together, "you thought I was part of all of it too?"

Sam nodded. "Yeah, at first. But after we talked last night, I know it's not the same thing. In fact, Dean and I would usually be out of town by now, but something's telling me to stay here. Call it a hunch."

"And your 'hunch' has something to do with me?" Allison asked.

"We're not sure…."

"But it might," Dean finished bluntly. He dug into his slice of pie with a furious stab of his fork.

Allison checked her watch, remembering the time. "I need to get the girls from school, but maybe we can meet back at my house and discuss this some more."

Sam, recognizing her words for the peace offering that they were, smiled. "We'd like that," he said whole-heartedly.


	5. Chapter 4

-Chapter 4-

Dean and Sam waited in their car across the street for Allison to arrive at the DuBois home. After ten minutes, they saw her station wagon pull into the driveway. Ariel jumped out of the passenger seat and rushed inside the house, while Allison got out and hurried after her. Bridgette and Marie followed at a more casual pace.

The Winchesters entered the house in time to hear a door slam and followed the sound to see Allison standing outside Ariel's room, knocking on the recently shut door.

"Ariel, open up. C'mon, let's talk about this!"

"Go away!" her daughter yelled through her closed door.

"Trouble?" Dean asked.

Allison sighed and turned away from them. She began walking to the kitchen, so Sam and Dean followed. "Something happened to Ariel at school today, and she refuses to talk about it. I think it's something to do with our gift. Usually, she'll open up to me, but today…" the medium shook her head.

"Why don't I try?" Sam offered.

Allison looked a bit doubtful, but then nodded. "I guess it's worth a shot. Thanks." She rubbed her face tiredly. "I think I'm going to go take a nap. I didn't get much sleep last night."

Sam nodded and had already turned towards the hallway leading to Ariel's bedroom when his brother's voice stopped him.

"Hey," Dean called, "what am I supposed to do while you two are having a chat?"

Sam looked back and shrugged. "Just wait here." His gaze landed on a plate sitting on the kitchen table with a few cookies left on it. "Have a cookie."

Dean looked mildly annoyed, but sat down at the kitchen table. He waited until Sam and Allison had left the room before picking up his first cookie.

-*-*-*-

Sam knocked on Ariel's door. "Ariel?" he called. "Hey, it's me, Sam. Can I come in?"

He waited a moment, then heard her unlock the door. He opened it and went inside.

"So, how's it going?" he asked gently.

"No offense, Sam, but you wouldn't understand," she replied, picking up a hairbrush from her desk and halfheartedly running it through her hair. "I don't even want to talk to my mom about this, and she's the only one who might get it."

"Did you have a dream?"

This caught her attention. She turned and stared at him, her eyes wide, hairbrush frozen in midair. "How did you know about that?"

"I get them too," he explained, deciding it would be best to leave out the fact that Allison had mentioned it. "That's why I came to see your mom. I wanted to find out more about how it works."

Ariel took some time to digest this information. Finally, she spoke. "I didn't have a dream, exactly. I just thought I saw something when I was at school."

"Like what?" Sam asked.

She smiled weakly. "You know what? It's nothing. I'd rather not talk about it." She began brushing her hair again, only to stop and set the brush down on her desktop after a few strokes.

"Sometimes, I wish I didn't have them," she admitted in a low voice. "The dreams, I mean. They make me feel like I'm different, like I'm …"

"A freak?" He nodded glumly. "I know what you mean. I had a life that was pretty far from normal growing up, but you're lucky. You have a mom and a dad who love you, and two sisters who look up to you." He paused. "I'd give anything to have what you have."

"Even the fights?"

That earned her a brief chuckle from him. "Well, Dean and I already have the fighting thing down, so I know what that's like. He once replaced my shampoo with Nair."

His words had the intended effect of making Ariel laugh. "Thanks, Sam," she said with a genuine smile this time.

"No problem." He returned her smile with one of his own, before suddenly his head throbbed with pain, and he winced and clutched his head.

Ariel's smile faded. "Are you okay? What's the matter?"

He groaned, feeling the pain in his head intensify. "It's nothing," he managed to get out through gritted teeth. "Just a headache. Excuse me." He hurried out of her room and to the bathroom.

Locking the door behind him, he put his hand on the cool glass of the mirror for support, bending over the sink as the headache ebbed away and a new vision came to him. When it was over, he raised himself back up and stared at himself in the mirror. His face was pale. He splashed some water onto his face, thinking of what to do next.

-*-*-*-

Dean surreptitiously glanced around the kitchen. There was now only one cookie left on the plate. He reached for it, only to be met by Bridgette's small hand. The little girl had come into the kitchen, also wanting a cookie. For a moment, the two of them stared at each other, at an impasse, until Dean proposed a way to solve the problem.

"Rock, paper, scissors?"

Bridgette agreed. "Okay."

They withdrew their hands, made them into fists, and did rock, paper, scissors. Dean threw scissors, and Bridgette threw paper.

Chuckling with satisfaction, Dean reached forward again to take the cookie, just as Sam re-entered the kitchen.

He looked from his smug brother to the pouting Bridgette and sighed in exasperation. "Dean," Sam chided.

"What?" his older brother asked, his eyes wide with innocence.

Sam tilted his head meaningfully towards Bridgette, who stared unhappily at Dean.

Dean groaned and slumped back in his chair. "Fine," he said in defeat. He pushed the plate with the cookie on it toward Bridgette. "Here. Take it."

As Bridgette grabbed the cookie and happily bit into it, Dean glared up at Sam. "You owe me a cookie," he told his brother darkly.

"Right now, we've got more important things to worry about," Sam replied. He motioned Dean to follow him around the corner, where they could speak more privately. "I had another vision," he whispered.

He instantly had Dean's attention. "What about?"

"Hard to say. I just saw bits and pieces, like always. It was nighttime. It took place in the woods. And there was a girl … with blond hair."

"Did you get a look at her face?"

"No. It was all a blur. She was trying to get away, I think. Like I said, bits and pieces."

Dean waited a moment before asking the question he knew Sam had already anticipated.

"You think it was one of Allison's kids you saw?"

His little brother bit his lip. "It could have been. I mean, it makes sense, whatever's drawing me to stay here, it's probably connected to Allison somehow, and I bet it's connected to the d--"

Sam's sentence was interrupted by a scream from down the hall.

They brothers ran into what they soon realized was Allison and Joe's bedroom, as they found the wife and mother of three sitting up on her bed, gasping for breath.

"Allison, what is it?" Sam asked.

Before she could answer, her daughters appeared in the doorway. "Mom, we heard you scream. What happened?" Ariel asked.

Her mother was quick to reassure her. "It's okay, honey. Take your sisters into the living room for me, would you? I need to talk to Sam and Dean."

Ariel looked unsure, but did as she was asked.

Taking a deep breath, Allison told the brothers what she had dreamed. "I saw him. The yellow-eyed man. In my dream, we were both here in this room, and he spoke to me."

"Well, what did he say?" Dean wanted to know.

"He said that he's coming. And then, he pinned me to the wall and…he killed my family. That's why I screamed."

Dean's expression became stony. "If he's coming, then we'll need to be ready for him. Look, I want you to call your husband and tell him to come home now. We're safer if we stay in one place and can keep an eye on each other. Sam and I will go to our car and get what we need."

Allison stared up at him in confusion. "Get what? How can you prepare to defend yourself against a demon?"

"Trust me. There are ways."

Sam nodded in agreement.

Seeing the certainty on their faces, Allison felt her nerves settle a little. "Okay," she conceded. "Do whatever you need to do."


	6. Chapter 5

- Chapter 5 -

"Allison, I'm home," Joe called as he opened the front door. "What's the emergency? Are the girls all right?" He saw something on the floor as he stepped over the threshold. "Is that _salt_?"

"Yep," Dean answered, prompting Joe to look up at him, startled by his presence.

The hunter sprinkled the front of Joe's shirt with holy water from a flask, making him splutter.

"Are you crazy? What are you doing?"

"Just double-checking," was all the answer he got.

"Sorry about that," Sam said, quickly shutting and locking the front door before he bent down to check that the salt line he had poured earlier remained undisturbed. "We just needed to make sure you were…you."

"What—Of course I'm me." Joe looked from one brother to the other, completely mystified. "Where's my family?"

"Living room," Dean replied.

Joe set his briefcase down on the floor in the entryway and found his family gathered on the living room couch.

"Allison, what is going on here?" he asked, seeking out his wife's face. "You tell me to come home, and when I do, I find salt on the floor, water's being thrown in my face..."

"Something's happening, Joe," she informed him. "There's a—there's a man. I had a dream about him, and he told me he was coming here. Sam and Dean are protecting us."

"How? By using salt and water? Look, if someone is coming to this house, we need to get out of here now."

"Sorry, I can't let you do that," Dean called from the entrance to the living room.

Joe turned to find the young man holding a sawed-off shotgun in his hands. "What are you doing? You brought a gun into my house?" He whipped his head around to stare at Allison. "You let him bring a _gun_ in here? Around our _children_?"

"Relax," the elder Winchester told him. "It's loaded with rock salt."

"Please, Mr. DuBois," Sam pleaded. "We're not here to hurt you. Like your wife said, we're trying to protect you."

"From what?"

"I'll explain it to you in our room," Allison told Joe. "Come on."

She led the way out of the living room, beckoning her husband to follow her.

Dean watched them leave, until his attention was diverted by Marie tugging on his hand.

"Did Daddy win the game?" she asked softly, pointing at the glimpse of a chalk marking that lay exposed under an upturned corner of the living room rug.

Dean pushed the corner of the rug back down with his foot, completely hiding the Devil's Trap symbol he had chalked out earlier. The fact that Joe had been able to leave the boundary of the symbol meant that he really was not possessed.

"Yeah," he told Marie. "He won." And looking down into the four-year-old's innocent face, he felt relief that Joe had passed their final test.

"Is a bad man really coming here? And why is he afraid of salt?" Bridgette asked from where she sat next to Ariel on the couch.

"Don't worry about that. Sam and Dean will protect us from him," her older sister reassured her. She turned to look at Sam. "Right?" she asked.

Sam's jaw tensed slightly, but he forced himself to answer. "We're going to do everything we can to keep you safe."

-*-*-*-

Half an hour later, Joe and Allison returned to the living room.

"Hey, girls, why don't we watch some TV?" Allison asked, switching on the television set to distract her children while Joe spoke quietly to their guests.

"So, what do we do?" he asked the Winchesters, sounding resigned.

"You believe us now?" Dean asked, raising his eyebrows.

"I believe that there is a threat against my family out there, and I will do whatever I can to stop it."

Dean nodded, then glanced at Sam in a silent signal.

Checking that the girls were not looking their way, Sam held out a military-issue knife to Joe.

"You can use this if you have to. Unless you'd rather use a gun…"

Joe shook his head slowly, staring at the large, sharp blade as he grasped it carefully by the handle.

-*-*-*-

Hours passed, and the day turned into night.

They tried to eat dinner, but everyone was on edge, and most of them barely ate or talked.

While Allison gave the girls their baths, and got them ready for an early bedtime, Joe sat with Sam and Dean, discussing the reasoning behind their strange security features.

"So, you say salt acts as a deterrent for ghosts and demons?"

"Yeah. Rock salt's the best. Not sure why, but it works. Pour it around you in a circle or make a line, and none of them evil sons of bitches is going to be able to cross it."

"And what's with the duct tape on the vents?"

"Demons can travel through air ducts," Sam explained. "They look like smoke when they're not possessing someone."

"What about the water?"

"Holy water. It's like acid to ghosts and demons," Dean said.

"Well, that makes sense, I guess."

"Look, we know this is a lot to take in at once, but if we all just stay here and wait for the demon to make his move, we can get him."

"How?"

"With this," answered Dean, producing a very old hand revolver from inside his jacket. "It's a Colt. Made special for the kind of work we do. It has the power to kill anything, including the demon."

-*-*-*-

Ariel lay awake in her bed, wondering what would happen tonight. Unlike her sisters, she knew the "bad man" was really a demon. She had eavesdropped on part of Sam and Dean's conversation with her mother that afternoon, still worried after she had heard her mother scream after her nap.

She had watched as Sam had sprinkled salt in front of every window and door and seen Dean taping up the air vents, feeling a little better at the precautions, even if she did not understand how they would help.

She remembered being afraid of the dark when she was younger, something she sometimes kidded Bridgette about now, but tonight, that old fear returned, stronger and more potent than she had ever remembered it being before.

She rolled over, staring out her window at the full moon outside. Suddenly, the moon was blocked by a man appearing in front of her window.

She opened her mouth to scream, but at a gesture from him, Ariel felt her throat close up, strangling her.

As she gasped for air, she heard the man's voice in her mind.

_Get your phone, open the window, and climb out. Scream, and your family dies._

Ariel felt her airway open up just enough to prevent her from passing out. She stumbled out of her bed, and took her cell phone from her bedside table. Quietly, she slid her window open. The man whipped away the screen covering her window without touching it, barely making a sound.

Ariel climbed out of her room, remembering not to break the salt line in front of her window as Sam had instructed her, and shut the window behind her.

She felt the invisible grip on her throat relax further, and she drew ragged breaths of oxygen. Her relief was short-lived, however, when the man suddenly grabbed her by her hair, jerking her head back and forcing her to look into his yellow eyes.

_You're coming with me,_ he said, telepathically again.

""I saw you…at my school today," Ariel choked out.

_Had to make sure you were worth coming to get._

"Why…are you…doing this?"

The demon sneered down at her and spoke out loud this time. "That's for me to know, and for you to find out."

Her throat tightened again, cutting off her air supply. Ariel's eyes rolled into the back of her head as she fell unconscious. The yellow-eyed demon picked her up and vanished with her into the night.


	7. Chapter 6

- Chapter 6 -

Joe, Sam, and Dean were still in the kitchen, and had been joined by Allison. As they sat at the kitchen table, sipping some coffee, the house phone rang, making the married couple jump. The Winchester brothers only straightened in their seats, even more alert now than ever.

Allison picked up the phone. "Hello?"

"Mom?" a voice quavered.

A knot formed in the pit of her stomach as recognition hit her. "Ariel?"

Immediately, Joe was on his feet and running toward his daughter's room. He came back in moments. "She's gone," he reported. "Her window was unlocked, and the screen's missing. Her cell phone is gone too. She must have snuck out."

Dean shook his head. "Damn it," he mumbled.

"Why would she do that?" Joe asked.

"That doesn't matter right now," Dean pointed out.

Allison, meanwhile, had continued to listen to what her daughter was saying. She then held the phone out to Sam. "She says she wants to talk to you."

Sam hesitantly took the receiver from her. "Ariel?"

"Sam," he heard her say tearfully. "You have to come get me. He says it has to be you."

"Okay, okay," he said quickly. "Just…tell me where you are." He listened to Ariel's answer, then spoke again. "Okay, we'll be there as soon as we can." He gave the phone back to Allison, who held it up to her ear, wanting to speak to her daughter again, but the connection was already lost.

"What did she say?" Joe asked.

"She said she's in Tonto Woods. Do you know where that is?"

"Yeah, it's not far from here, about fifteen minutes due west. We can go with you."

"No," he said quickly. "It's too dangerous."

"Then let us call the police."

"They'll just get in the way," Dean objected.

"That is our daughter out there!" Allison argued.

"I know," Sam said, "but please, it's better if we handle this alone."

"Sam's right," Dean chimed in again. "No offense, but it'll make things a lot easier if we don't have to worry about anyone else getting hurt in the crossfire. Just stay with your other daughters and make sure no one else leaves the house."

"Please," Allison begged, "please get Ariel back safely."

Dean said nothing. He merely checked the ammunition in the Colt one last time before sliding his chair back from the table to join Sam, who was already on his feet.

-*-*-*-

"So, he's got Ariel in the woods somewhere?" Dean spoke from behind the wheel of the Impala as he and Sam raced to Ariel's location.

"Yeah. He's using her as bait."

"Okay, then what happens after we show?"

"I don't know." Sam sighed, frustration and helplessness mingling together in his facial expression.

His brother sensed there was something more he wanted to say. "What?"

"I should have seen it sooner. Like it or not, that demon and I are connected."

"No, you're not. You're nothing like him, Sam. And anyway, how could you know he would go after Ariel?"

"My vision, Dean, remember? A girl in the woods, trying to get away from someone…or something."

"All right, so then, what's the game plan?"

Sam sighed as he stared out the front windshield at the dark night sky. "I think I should go in alone."

Dean glanced at him. "Are you crazy, man?"

"Look, the demon wants me for something. I'm the reason Ariel got kidnapped."

"That still doesn't justify you going in alone. You're gonna need backup."

"We're here," Sam announced, seeing a sign welcoming them to Tonto Woods. Dean slowed the car to a stop, and the brothers got out. Arming themselves with weapons and a flashlight from their trunk, they looked around the shadowy woods for any indication of where Ariel and the demon might be.

"Hey," Dean suddenly said, nudging Sam with his elbow, "is that a fire over there?" He pointed into the distance, where a clearing could be seen through the trees. A small orange light of flame could be seen hovering close to the ground.

Sam nodded, confirming Dean's observation. Looking at one another, then towards the flame, the two hunters strode into the darkness of the woods, Sam using their flashlight to help them see their path.

-*-*-*-

As Sam and Dean neared the fire, their suspicions were raised by what they saw.

Ariel was poking at the fire with a stick, seemingly fine, while next to her lay the body of a man on his back.

"Ariel?" Sam cautiously asked.

Dean silently slipped the Colt out of his jacket pocket and used his left hand to muffle the sound of him cocking the trigger.

"Oh, please, don't even bother," Ariel spoke up, startling the Winchesters. "You won't shoot me. Not while I'm in _this_ body, anyway." She lifted her head, revealing yellow eyes.

"You son of a bitch," Sam said with quiet rage. "Let her go!"

"You mean, after all that work I did knocking out my previous host?" the demon asked.

Sam looked closer at the man's body, seeing his head resting against a stone on the forest floor. He shined his flashlight on the rock, revealing a faint trickle of blood on its gray face.

"What do you want?" Dean growled, keeping the Colt out, but pointed away from Ariel's body.

"I just wanted to see how Sam was doing, maybe even have a little chat," the yellow-eyed demon replied.

"I'm here. Start talking."

The possessed Ariel made a tsking sound. "I just wanted to let you know that your time is coming, Sam. _I'll _be coming. For you."

"Why?"

"You don't need to know that yet, Sammy. But I'll be back. Oh," the demon added, as if it was an afterthought, "and how are you sleeping? Had any good dreams lately?"

"What do you want from me?" the younger Winchester cried in exasperation. "Why are you doing this to me?"

"I'm not doing anything, Sam. If anything, you're doing it to yourself."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Dean asked.

"It means that Sam is special. He always has been. And that's why it had to be you, Sam. It always had to be you." The demon threw the stick it had been using to poke the fire into the flames, then stood and brushed off Ariel's thighs. "I'd better be going. My old host is going to wake up any minute now."

Sure enough, the man who the demon had formerly possessed was beginning to stir to life.

The possessed Ariel turned to the Winchesters and winked. "See you soon, Sam," the demon said before exiting from Ariel's mouth in a cloud of black smoke and passing into the man's mouth. No longer able to hold herself up without the demon controlling her body, Ariel began to fall towards the fire, only to have Sam catch her in time.

Dean, distracted by Ariel's situation, aimed the Colt a moment too late, and before he could pull the trigger, the man and the demon were both gone.

As the brothers stared at the spot the demon had vanished from, Ariel slowly opened her eyes.

"Sam?" she murmured. "What happened?"

"It's okay, Ariel," he replied. "You're safe now. Come on. Let's get you home."

He glanced at Dean, who nodded, as he deprimed the Colt and slipped it back inside his jacket pocket.

Wordlessly, Sam picked Ariel up in his arms and carried her as he and Dean made their way back to the Impala.


	8. Epilogue

- Epilogue -

"Okay, the cheeseburgers are ready. Come and get it!" Joe announced, sliding cheese-covered patties from the backyard grill onto the sesame seed buns that Bridgette handed to him on paper plates.

The Winchester brothers had joined the DuBois family at their home for lunch. It was partly a celebration that Ariel was home safe, partly a thank you to Sam and Dean, and a goodbye party for the hunters as well.

Sam and Dean sat on the patio's deck chairs, drinking beers, and quietly observing as Joe continued serving the burger patties to his middle daughter.

"You okay, Sammy?" Dean asked softly, noticing his brother was staring into space.

"Yeah," the tall young man replied. "I just can't help thinking about what he said to me back there."

"Look, he's gone now. Let's not worry about it, okay? We'll get him. I promise."

Sam nodded, even though a slight frown of worry still creased his forehead. "Okay, yeah," he agreed. A corner of his mouth quirked upward into a smile. "I haven't been to a barbeque in months anyway."

"Now we're talking," Dean encouraged. Clinking his beer bottle against Sam's, the brothers both took a drink before Allison stuck her head out the sliding door to the patio.

"Come inside, guys. The food's ready," she called, going out to help Bridgette and Joe carry the plates of cheeseburgers into the house.

Sam and Dean stood from their seats and followed Allison into the dining room, where their lunch was.

Joe sat at the head of the table with Allison to his right. Ariel was seated on Allison's other side, followed by Sam. Dean sat across from his brother and next to Marie, then came Bridgette, who was to Joe's left.

On the table were plates of crisp bacon, lettuce, and sliced tomatoes, and bottles of mustard, ketchup, and pickles. Accompanying their burgers were potato chips and a fresh green salad.

Everyone began helping themselves to the fixings and side dishes, with Dean being the most enthusiastic as he assembled his bacon cheeseburger.

"Save some room for dessert," Allison cautioned them. "I bought an apple pie. It's Ariel's favorite."

Dean grinned in appreciation. "Good choice," he commended Ariel.

"Thanks," she said, smiling for a moment, before she glanced shyly at Sam. "So, um, where are you headed to next?" she asked him.

"Uh, we're thinking Oregon," Sam replied. "There's some things going on there we want to check out."

"Do you think you'll ever come back here again?"

Sam looked to Dean for help, but his brother only smiled, ducking his head as he took another bite of his burger.

"I'll tell you what," he proposed, "why don't I give you my e-mail address? That way, we can keep in touch."

"Really?" Ariel asked, her face lighting up with happiness.

"If it's okay with your parents," Sam added, glancing at Allison and Joe.

Ariel turned to them as well. "Is it okay?" she asked them.

Joe did not look as happy as Allison did, but he nodded anyway. "I'll give you my e-mail," he told Sam, "and let Ariel know if you send her a message."

"Thank you, Daddy," Ariel said. She beamed at him, then returned to eating her salad with more relish than she had displayed before.

Dean chuckled quietly, while Sam concentrated on the food on his plate.

Taking pity on the younger Winchester, Allison got up from her seat. "Who's ready for dessert?" she asked.

-*-*-*-

After lunch, Dean and Sam said their goodbyes to Joe and Allison's family.

While Sam and Joe exchanged e-mail addresses, Dean spoke to Allison.

"Thanks for the food, Allison. It was awesome." Turning serious, he added in a low voice, "And thanks for helping Sam, you know, with his psychic thing."

"Well, I was glad to do it. And thank you, Dean, for everything you've done. We'll never forget it."

She opened her arms to him, and he embraced her, feeling somewhat awkward. As they hugged, she heard a fleeting thought from him. _I wish I could have had a mom like you._

Allison laughed. "I'm not so sure about that," she replied as she released him, making Dean look at her in surprise.

As his shock and embarrassment wore off, he cleared his throat. "Well, uh, I guess I'll get out of your hair." He went over to Joe and shook the man's hand. "Joe."

"Dean," the older man acknowledged.

Sam also shook the engineer's hand. "Thanks for trusting us." He then went to say goodbye to Allison. "Thank you. I really appreciate you trying to help me."

"And thank you for getting Ariel back for us." She hugged Sam, sensing his thoughts as she had with Dean. "There's no need to blame yourself, Sam. It wasn't your fault," she assured him, knowing he still blamed himself for Ariel's disappearance.

Nodding, Sam swallowed the lump that had risen in his throat. "Take care of yourself, okay?" he asked.

Allison smiled kindly at him. "I'll do my best," she promised.

The brothers walked across the street and stored their things in the trunk of the Impala, then turned to wave goodbye to the DuBois family, who had gathered outside their front door to see them off.

Dean climbed into the driver's seat and Sam got in beside him. Before he started the engine, Dean looked over at his brother.

"You really gonna keep in touch with Ariel?" he asked.

"Yeah, I will. I'm not like you, Dean. I'm not one of those guys who say they'll call when they won't."

Dean grinned and put a hand on his brother's shoulder. "That's what I like about you, Sammy," he said, revving the Impala's engine to life. "You're in touch with your feminine side."

His little brother snorted and shoved Dean's hand off his shoulder.

The elder Winchester only laughed, turning up the volume as a classic rock song came on over the car's speakers, before driving off into the afternoon sun.

- End -


End file.
